A federal court has denied an attempt by San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus to block a voter-approved initiative allowing the county board of supervisors to remove her from office, claiming it violated her federal rights.

The saga of San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus will enter a new phase Monday when hearings begin before the county's board of supervisors, which are meant to confirm details from an independent investigator's report last year that led to calls for Corpus to resign.

Corpus has steadfastly refused to resign her post and consistently denied the allegations against her, though one involving her romantic relationship with a man she ultimately hired as her second in command might be difficult to disprove.

This week, as Bay Area News Group reports, a federal judge denied a bid from Corpus and her attorneys to block the ballot initiative that was overwhelmingly approved by county voters in March from taking effect.

US District Judge Vince Chhabria wrote in his decision that "the Court is skeptical that Corpus will ever be able to prevail on her claims that the removal process violates her federal rights." And, Chhabria added, "even if there were serious questions going to the merits of her claims, the Court would decline to take the extraordinary step of interfering with an ongoing local government process, particularly given that Corpus could (if she were somehow able to prevail) get most of the relief she seeks in this lawsuit after the fact."

The voter-approved initiative, which was the sole item in a special election in mid-March, added a charter amendment giving the board of supervisors the one-time ability to initiate a process of remove the sheriff from office for cause, which was something the county charter did not previously allow.

Corpus took office as sheriff in early 2023, and she soon ran afoul of two unions representing sheriff's deputies and staffers in the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, which accused her of abuses of power and misconduct. A subsequent investigation launched and paid for by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, led by retired Santa Clara County Judge LaDoris Cordell, produced a 400-page report that included many witness statements — some of them anonymous — included accusations that Corpus had used racist and homophobic slurs on the job, and that she had hired realtor Victor Aenlle, with whom she was allegedly having an affair, as her chief of staff.

In one allegation, Corpus was reported to have taken a vacation to Hawai'i with Aenlle and her children, and when her husband — who is also employed by the Sheriff's Office — asked if he was invited, she allegedly told him there was no plane ticket for him.

Employees further accused Corpus of a pattern of "retaliation and intimidation tactics," which included having the president of the deputies' union arrested.

Corpus, who is separately facing a civil grand jury trial on similar accusations, has lawyered up further in recent weeks. As KTVU reports, attorney Tom Perez has joined her team, and he argued before the board of supervisors on Tuesday that their hearings on the removal process should wait until the an outcome has been reached in the civil grand jury process.

Perez is a former chair of the Democratic National Committee, and he formerly served as US Secretary of Labor under President Obama and as a senior advisor to President Biden.

"What the last two years have been about is character assassination, nothing less," Perez said, per KTVU. "The board of supervisors is the prosecutor, they’re making the rules, and they’re the judge, and the jury."

Corpus and her attorneys have continued to argue that she has been targeted because she is a Latina woman in a position of power.

Previously: San Mateo County Sheriff Accused By Civil Grand Jury on Counts of Retaliation and Conflict of Interest